A little ephemera

I love, love, love ephemera (ticket stubs, pamphlets, stamps, etc.). I have always found that stuff to be so much fun. That's why I was super excited yesterday when I went to Michaels and saw that K & Company had come out with a whole new collection (the Handmade collection) featuring plenty of ephemera...much like Making Memories' Vintage Findings collection.

One problem with my love for ephemera: it's typically associated with a very vintage style of scrapping...and if you've been following my blog for awhile, you know that I am NOT a vintage scrapper...it's so hard for me. I love bright and loud layouts. But every now and then, I like to dabble in the vintage style.

Here is a recent layout I made, using my new K & Company goodies. I also used a Creative Scrappers sketch...

Maybe this will inspire some of you to scrap outside of your comfort zone for a day!

Prize for current challenge

Hey, all!

So, I bet you've been wondering what the prize is going to be for my current challenge...Well...I was inspired by this Scrapbook.com article to make a kit for the prize this month.

Here it is:

Hopefully you are now encouraged to play along! :-) Have a happy, krafty weekend!

Feelin' green & challenge-y

Hello, all!!! So, I have nothing against the color pink, but I am ready to be done with February and all its pinks and reds...I'm ready for March. One of my favorite things about March is all the *GREEN* that sprouts up. I just love the color green - it's such a happy color. It's fresh. And St. Patty's Day is so much fun - if you actually remember to take pictures when you go out to celebrate, then you have some great scrapping material. In the spirit of the month of March, I made this layout:

Lots and lots of green - and now on to the details of my next challenge. Here are the rules:

-Pick a predominant color to use in your layout. You can have a different predominant color as your background (for example, I used brown)- but I want most of your embellies to be from the same color family.

-Link your layout to this post by Wednesday, 17 March, 6 pm PST.

-Tell your friends about this challenge!!

The prize will be posted this weekend. Until next time, happy kraftin'!

Scrappy card

Hey, all! I'm here with another fun way to use your scraps...you've basically already seen this in one of my previous cards, but I liked it so much, I thought I would do another.

I just attacked some of the paper in my scraps bin with a circle punch. These papers were all from the same line, K & Company Berry Sweet, so all the circles coordinated well together.

Another thing I like about this circle technique is the ability to add tiny little embellies onto the circle for some more fun detail. I really like little paper flowers, but I never quite know how to use them on layouts...but they are the perfect size for cards!

That's all I have for now...I'm in a bit of a creative slump recently, so I have not been highly productive. However, after making this card I feel a circle-filled layout coming on soon!

Be sure to check back later in the week for my next challenge!!

Scraplift yourself!

Hey, all! I hope your weekend is starting off well...

...Do you ever get stuck on layout ideas but are still in the mood to create? This happened to me tonight, so I just decided to scraplift myself.

Here is the original:

And here is my new one:

I definitely think the original is the better of the two, but I'm not too displeased with the new one either. I'm still trying to scrap these pictures from my best friend's wedding, despite the fact that their photographer did a horrible job (ha!). I like using the colors pink and green with these photos, too. I just think the colors go well with all the pictures from the day. I decided to venture away from my usual Crate Paper and use some of the paper's that came in this month's Polka Dot Whimsy kit.

Hope everyone has a great weekend...I have to work this weekend, so I hope that everyone has a little bit more fun than me! :-)

GIVEAWAY!

Hey, all!! My scrappy friend Sarah is having a giveaway at her blog. While I've never met Sarah in person, I became a huge fan of her work a few months ago. She's incredibly talented and crafty and definitely worth checking out. She's trying to reach 50,000 page views on her blog before her birthday. I don't think she'll have any problems doing that. Click here for details about her giveaway...she's giving away three different prizes, so your odds are good! And make sure to tell her that Kat sent you... :D

New Projects

Hey, all! I'm sad to say that even though I had a nice, long, 3-day weekend, I barely crafted anything. Oopsies. ☺ Oh well. It was nice to just relax a bit. Before I head back to work tomorrow I just wanted to share the projects I did create this weekend.

This is a card that I made. I loved using the circles in this way. And it's another great way to use up some scraps. And for those who asked about the cute bird paper from yesterday's post - it's Jillibean Soup! I used some scraps from that paper on my card today. I know the colors in this card are a little weird, but I still like the way it turned out nonetheless.

And this is a layout that I created using a sketch by Kristine Davidson. If you haven't checked out her blog, Creative Scrappers, before, I highly recommend it. It is full of awesome sketches and tons of inspiration from a supberb design team.

Paper Flower Tutorial

Hey, all! I have a fun paper flower tutorial that I would like to share. Bare with me: the pictures are not the best (my camera kinda sucks/the operator has no idea how to use it properly) and this is the first real tutorial I've ever done. This is the flower I will show you how to make:


One thing I love about making these is that is a perfect way to use some of the scraps you have lying around. I pulled some scrap paper right out of my scraps bin to create this. I recommend using a double-sided paper because you will see both sides once the flower is complete. First begin by cutting out/punching circles in your desired size. The ones I used are about an inch and half wide. I ended up using 9 circles to make the flower:

Fold every circle in half. You are going to want to be able to see the crease:

Next, fold in part of the circle as if you will be making a wedge shape. Make sure that this fold extends past the center crease that you just made:

Take the part of the fold that extended past the center crease and fold it back out toward the outside of the circle. The edge of this fold should line up with the center crease:

Repeat on the other side:

Your piece of paper should look like this once you are done:

Repeat on the remaining circle pieces:

Finally, glue the pieces down on to your project by lining up all the pointy ends together. Imagine putting a bunch of pizza slices back together to make a whole pizza. Once you've done that, just add a center. I used a button here, but you can use anything: a brad, a rhinestone, chipboard, etc.:

I hope my tutorial wasn't too confusing. Thank goodness I took pictures so you can at least see what I'm talking about, even if my words don't make any sense!

Until next time, happy kraftin'!

Challenge winner!

Hey, all!

Just wanted to announce the random winner of my challenge...

Congrats to Gina!! Go check out her blog for some more of her awesome work. Gina, email your mailing address to kraftykat9@gmail.com and I will put your prize in the mail ASAP :)

Thanks also to everyone who played along...I loved all the layouts that I saw.

I will be back again soon with a brand new challenge, so keep checking back!!

New layout...

Hey, all! I just wanted to share a new layout with you. If you've been following along with my blog for some time, you know by now that I am a HUGE Crate Paper fan. How could I not be? Just look at these super fun "Bliss" papers. I'm pretty preppy so I've always loved the pink-green color combo....

This is a scraplift of Delaina Burns' layout, "Katie's 12." I know the picture looks funny because my best friend, the bride, is whited out...however, most of her wedding photos came out like that...super bright...it's a little frustrating because I think she should stand out in all these pictures...oh well....

Also, as an important side note, I used the Martha Stewart loops punches, which are up for grabs in this month's challenge. Ok, that's it...I promise that I will not mention my current challenge again until I announce the winner. I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it...ha!

A new sketch...finally!

Hey, all! I have a new sketch to share with you...I know it's been awhile since I posted one...
And here is my take on it:

As always, if you use this sketch, I would LOVE to see what you do with it...just leave a link here!!

Scrapping outside of my comfort zone...

Hey, all! I hope everyone is having a good weekend...I was pretty crafty today (yay!). I finished up a special Valentine's gift for the one I love (can't say what it is on here, since he checks in occasionally) and I finished 2 layouts today. Here is one of them...I used a sketch from Sketchabilities that I just fell in love with the first time I saw it. 

I've had those Making Memories flowers sitting around for quite awhile, so I decided to use them on this. I'm trying to use up some of my scrapping stash before I can justify buying some of the new stuff that is coming out now. This layout wasn't totally my style, but I'm still fairly pleased with how it turned out. It's fun to work outside of your comfort zone from time-to-time.

Also, don't forget about my current challenge going on. You still have one more week to link your entries to the original post!!! Have a good weeked...and happy kraftin'!

Making Valentines

Hello, all...I've been busy making Valentines...so much fun...holidays that encourage craftiness are always fun!

I decided to try a new technique: masking. I've seen a bunch of layouts using this technique recently, so I decided to jump on board....especially with my new found love of glimmer mist. To achieve the masking look on my valentine, I just laid down some chipboard shapes that I had lying around and then sprayed glimmer mist. Once the glimmer mist had dried, I picked the chipboard up, and wa-la. It's a fun and easy technique...and I think I'm going to use it more often!